I am curious to find out why shouting is so important in kendo. My sensei insists it's very important but why? Could I be a silent kendoka? To me it seems like if you shout you are less concentrated. Am I wrong?

Well....given your choice of screen name I'm not really sure how serious you might be......but two answers come to mind.

1-Ask your teacher!......easily possible that any answer we might give you will be a re-tred of what your teacher will say.

Also possible that anything we might tell you is 180 degrees from what your teacher is going to say.

Since your NOT taking lessons from any of us (presumably) what any of us say is largely beside the point for YOUR practice.

2-The "stock" answer---or one of them anyhow is that such a loud yell--I presume you mean a kiai is simply part of the practice......people often "grunt" or forcefully expell air when lifting heavy objects---at least the powerlifters that work out in my gym do!......Boxers often "huff" a quick breath when hitting/striking the heavy bags........my guess is something simlier.

If your running out of air that is a whole other story......if you not then my best advice is again, ask your teacher and try not to let such mundane things worry you.

Edited by cxt (01/21/0903:22 PM)

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I did battle with ignorance today.......and ignorance won.
Huey.

Kiai is in Kendo because kiai is in many forms of Kenjutsu, and in most Japanese MA. At it's most basic level, you could think of it as a battle cry, and it probably comes from that.

There are many purposes for kiai, but as far as Kendo is concerned, the main one is using the kiai to help focus the mind and body into one. As I said though, there are many levels to kiai, from the overtly physical, to the esoteric.

--Chris

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"Seek not to follow in the footsteps of the men of old; seek what they sought."--Basho

Uh...basic breath training, exhale on exertion/extension, inhale on contraction. The kiai you use hopefully does not sound like 'kiai', rather for exertional jing related technique a vowel or combo of vowel (E!, EAI!, tho with Toyama Ryu Batto-Jitsu my habit was asked to be changed to TOE!), there is a distinct place for sibilants (the Tension form, and in some soft style attack, abs and throat tight, something like 'U-SSSSSaaaa') not jing, pushing of yi to Qi into target...Bruce Lee - 'WOOOOAAAssssss'. Besides if just starting out students forget to breath, this makes one breath.

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do not try to spork the post, for that is impossible, only realize there is no post to spork

When first learning kendo I was told that it is a way of calling the shot (i.e. one yells "men!" when hitting the head, "kote" for the wrist etc) but our club has had a new, and more experienced sensei join our club, and he told us that eventually it doesn't matter what one yells, as long as you yell long and loud.

Specifically, I hit his kote, and accidentally yelled "men" but when I corrected myself he told me don't worry about it, what is kiai'ed (is kiai'ed a word??) doesn't matter.